Shivnath Thukral, currently serving as the director of public policy at WhatsApp India, has been appointed the director of public policy for Meta India that includes Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
These developments also come at a time when Facebook parent firm Meta is laying off 11,000 people across the world on November 9.
"I want to thank Abhijit Bose for his tremendous contributions as our first head of WhatsApp in India. His entrepreneurial drive helped our team deliver new services that have benefited millions of people and businesses. There is so much more WhatsApp can do for India and we're excited to continue helping advance India's digital transformation," Will Cathcart, Head of WhatsApp, said in a statement.
Abhijit Bose was appointed as the first country head for WhatsApp in 2019. He was roped in drive WhatsApp's payments business as well as expand the messaging app's reach in India.
In a social media post, Bose said that the week has been a tough one for all teams at WhatsApp.
"Amidst all of this, I just shared some news with our WhatsApp and India teams. It has been planned for a while, but given the events last week, we wanted to hold this back so we could focus on supporting those impacted last week," he said.
"After a small break, I plan to rejoin the entrepreneurial world; you’ll see announcements on that shortly!" he added.
Meta Director for Partnerships in India Manish Chopra said that Aggarwal has decided to step down from his role at Meta to pursue another opportunity.
"Over the last year, he has played an important role in leading our policy-led initiatives in areas such as user-safety, privacy and scaling up programmes like GOAL to drive digital inclusion in the country. He has also been leading proactive engagement with critical policy and regulatory stakeholders. We are grateful for his contributions and wish him very best for the future," Chopra said.
"Shivnath has been an integral part of our public policy team since 2017. In his new role, Shivnath will define and lead important policy development initiatives across our apps -- Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp -- in India. We remain committed to our users in India and will continue to contribute meaningfully to the regulatory process that will enable everyone to harness the full potential of India's digital economy," he added
